Is This the Greatest Father/Daughter Star Wars Costume...Ever?

Writer-at-large. Bad jokes aplenty. Can be gently prodded on Twitter at @kitsb1

One of the greatest joys about being a parent is sharing the things you love - and especially the things you loved when you were younger - with your new sidekick/co-pilot/child. So, for a whole generation (or two) of parents, passing on the torch of Star Wars to their kids has become both a treasured memory, and a right of passage to match the Kessel Run.

For Michigan father Tom Burns, though, this particular right of passage took on a whole new level of awesomeness, after he showed his seven year old daughter Star Wars for the first time.

Her immediate response?

"Do you think I could be Han Solo for Halloween?"

Because, duh...

Burns' response? To be about as awesome as it's humanly possible to be. As he put it in an article for the Good Men Project:

"Immediately, I responded "Yeah, why, of course, you could. That would be amazing. Why couldn’t you be Han Solo?" And, even though I didn’t want her response to come, it did. "Welll…. I’m a girl.""

Burns, though, had the perfect response:

"Screw that."

Using the internet, he showed his daughter some of the countless examples of female Han Solo cosplayers - thus proving that awesome parenting can, in fact, trump entrenched societal gender roles and sexism, at least some of the time.

Also this.

That, though, wasn't even half of the awesome that was to come. As Burns puts it:

"My daughter’s eyes went wide. She was sold on the idea. This could happen. But then she turned and looked at me, "But what are you going to be?" She thought for a second and said "Well, if I’m a Han Solo, you should probably be Princess Leia, I guess…""

Which, in fairness, is a solid piece of logic (and an excellent way of avoiding your father upstaging you by playing Chewbacca).

This, though, was where Burns' response graduated to the highest, most legendary, and generally kick ass-est level of awesomeness:

"She looked at me with an implied question in her eyes. And, c’mon, if I immediately told her "YES, a girl can be Han Solo," it would’ve been pretty hypocritical of me to say "Nope, a boy can’t be Princess Leia." So, as quickly as I could, I said, "That would be FANTASTIC. I totally should be Leia." And that’s exactly what I did. Because that’s what dads do."

And then, this happened:

Because YES, Tom Burns. YES.

Not only that, but as Burns reveals:

"We got nothing but smiles at the Halloween event we attended last night and even got a few laughs when I came face-to-face with a mom dressed as Princess Leia and said "Well, this is embarrassing…""

Proving that nothing can ever be more awesome than a gender-role defying father/daughter Halloween duo.

Not even the originals...

Oh, but wait...There's more...

"My big take-away from all this will be—equality goes both ways. If I’m going to tell my daughter that she can do almost anything a man can do (excepting some very specific biological acts), then I also need to show her that a man can do almost anything a woman can do too… especially when it’s something awesome like dressing up as a character from one of the best movies ever."

And, with that, Tom Burns (and his bad-ass daughter/Corellian smuggler) just went right to the top of my official list of heroes. Right alongside Han Solo.

Now, can someone make sure J.J. Abrams hears about this, and gets them a part in [Star Wars: Episode VII](movie:711158)?

Poll

What do you guys think? Just how awesome are Tom Burns and his daughter's Star Wars costumes?